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Pursuing truth toward justice

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice
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Environment

Oakdale Water Sale Illegal, says Attorney

March 26, 2018 By Eric Caine 1 Comment

“It will probably be some shady deal again.” Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) water attorney Tim O’Laughlin is fond of reminding people he’s one of the best water attorneys in the west. During a recent OID Board meeting, he told Director Linda Santos that he’s also an expert on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). It was a bold statement from a man who just last year not only lost OID’s […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: Oakdale Irrigation District water sales, Oakdale Irrigation water rates

More Court Time for the Water District?

March 21, 2018 By Eric Caine Leave a Comment

Tuesday morning, by a 3-2 vote, the Oakdale Irrigation District Board of Directors (OID) approved a proposal to sell $10 million of surplus water outside the district. As usual, the two directors against the proposal were Gail Altieri and Linda Santos, who have the singular distinction of having been sued by their own board, not long after both were elected by overwhelming margins in 2015. Tuesday’s meeting featured the usual […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: Oakdale Irrigation District water sale, Oakdale Irrigation District water sales

Did Trinitas Leave OID Holding the Bag (Again)?

February 12, 2018 By Eric Caine 3 Comments

When the big-time investors from the Bay Area showed up in Oakdale saying they were ready to become farmers, the city swooned. Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) was entranced by their offer to build infrastructure for water deliveries and offered them bargain-basement water rates and a sweet annexation deal, even while it had previously denied many long-term farmers’ applications. When a few local farmers suggested Trinitas Partners was yet another “turn […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: Eastern Stanislaus County groundwater, Trinitas Almonds, Trinitas Partners Oakdale

Valley Water: The Big Lie

February 9, 2018 By Eric Caine 9 Comments

California Aqueduct

Of all the mythologies that dominate San Joaquin Valley politics, the mythology of water may be the most powerful and enduring. The basis of the myth consists of a simple fiction that states, unequivocally, that all valley water is, “our water.” Grammarians, of whom there are fewer and fewer, might ask who is meant by “our,” but such a question would be grossly out of order in a region where […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured

132 Freeway Will Be an Environmental Disaster

July 21, 2017 By admin 1 Comment

Environmentalists are notorious about opposing freeway projects , but the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations have been quiet about the 132 freeway plan. Either the project has not caught their attention or they just don’t care about the  Valley because local politics are dominated by anti-environment interest groups. Regardless of the reasons for political silence, a discussion is needed because the 132 freeway will be a disaster. Wildlife Refuge State Route 132 […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: Highway 132 barium, Highway 132 expansion, Highway 132 Freeway Project

Groundwater Extraction Needs Oversight Now, Says Kennedy

July 4, 2017 By admin 4 Comments

Dr. Vance Kennedy

Dr. Vance Kennedy is a retired research hydrologist, with degrees in chemical engineering, geochemistry, and geology. There are hundreds of deep wells in the foothills east of the San Joaquin Valley, especially in Stanislaus and Merced Counties. They are depleting the general water table at an alarming rate. When that water table drops by several hundred feet, no one will be able to live there who relies on groundwater because […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: California groundwater law, eastern Stanislaus County almond orchards, Eastern Stanislaus County groundwater, mining groundwater

Will the Water District Double-Down on Dumb?

April 19, 2017 By admin Leave a Comment

Considering they’d been walloped by a court ruling the previous week, Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) General Manager Steve Knell and water attorney Tim O’Laughlin looked surprisingly confident when they arrived early for Tuesday night’s special board meeting. They were preceded by rumors on social media and elsewhere that O’Laughlin would use Judge Roger Beauchesne’s decision as an excuse to deny water to out-of-district applicants for OID surface water. Beauchesne had […]

Filed Under: Environment

The Hidden Truth about Valley Water

February 14, 2017 By Eric Caine 1 Comment

The recent deluge throughout Northern California has caused equal parts celebration and outrage. Celebration because it would appear to some the drought is over and outrage because those same celebrants are demonizing anyone who says we’re still in a water emergency. As always, the favored targets for righteous indignation are the government and, “those in environmental groups.” “Why would the state water board tell us we’re still in drought?’ asked […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: San Joaquin Valley aquifer, San Joaquin Valley groundwater, San Joaquin Valley subsidence

OID: How to Endanger a Species

January 21, 2017 By Eric Caine 1 Comment

To hear Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) management tell it, 3000 acres is a mere pittance. The acreage is what OID estimates would be fallowed in a program it calls the “On-Farm Conservation Program.” OID claims the area is so small and environmental impacts so low that there’s no need for an Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The program is currently part of a lawsuit by the Oakdale Groundwater Alliance. Attorneys for […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured

OID Suit about More than Water

January 16, 2017 By Eric Caine 1 Comment

Over most of its forty-six year history, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has been most often associated with developers and urban sprawl. With few exceptions, agriculture was virtually exempt from CEQA review. The almond boom and a six-year drought changed everything. Today, farming is no longer surrounded by a holy aura. The farmer as corporate businessman is as much a part of the ag image as the family farmer […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured

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Off The Wire

Biden restores roadless protection to the Tongass, North America's largest rainforest
Biden restores roadless protection to the Tongass, North America’s largest rainforest
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Fentanyl on campus: One Bay Area school saved a student?s life. Another missed the signs of an overdose. Is your school ready?
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PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

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The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
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Email us at:
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Dedicated to the memory of John Michael Flint. Contact us at thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

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